This week New Zealand singer Lorde hit out after a picture of her face was touched up to make her skin look flawless.

Like many 17-year-olds, Lorde suffers from bouts of acne and was furious when a shot was photo-shopped to remove the blemishes.

The Grammy-winner then decided to post the original untouched picture telling her fans “flaws are ok :-)”

In a message which slammed the touch-ups, she said: “I find this curious – two photos from today, one edited so my skin is perfect and one real. remember flaws are ok :-)”

Her comments got me thinking about the current selfie craze and the obsession with posting “perfect” pictures of ourselves online.

Over 80 million photos have been posted on Instagram with the hashtag Me while over 31 million photos have been posted with the hashtag Selfie.

The debate on the effect the selfie craze is having on our image and self-esteem is quite divided.

Some psychologists argue that it is empowering because the user takes the picture of themselves and posts it.

They dictate the terms of the picture, how and when it is taken, therefore they can control what images of them are posted online and be empowered in the process.

But other psychologists have warned there’s a danger that your self-esteem may start to be tied to the number of likes and positive comments which your photo generates.

If your photo gets no feedback or negative comments, it could cause your self-esteem to plummet.

A study found that girls who constantly post selfies often struggle with low self-esteem and are looking for valediction by posting pictures of themselves.

The TODAY/AOL survey found that 55 % of girls and 34 % of teen boys said “social media makes me feel more self-conscious about my appearance”.

More worrying six out of ten teenage girls admitted “seeing pictures of other people living glamorous-looking lives on social media makes me feel bad about myself”.

If you have a smartphone or laptop, it’s virtually impossible to avoid being bombarded with selfies on a daily basis.

It all points to an unhealthy obsession with how you look with people judged on their appearance rather than who they are.

You don’t see that many unattractive selfies being posted online but in real-life, there is no photoshop or filter that can make you look thinner, more tanned, less spotty.

There was a really disturbing story last week about teenager Danny Bowman who became so obsessed with taking the perfect selfie he tried to kill himself when he failed to do it.

Danny Bowman seen here in one of the many selfies he took of himself

The 19-year-old spent 10 hours a day taking up to 200 snaps of himself on his iPhone.

He dropped out of school, didn’t leave his house in six months, lost two stone trying to make himself look better for the camera before eventually taking an overdose because he couldn’t take the perfect selfie.

Thankfully Danny’s mum Penny saved him from his attempted overdose and got him help.

Of course this is selfie obsession in its most extreme form and most people will thankfully never experience it on that level.

But you have to wonder what impact the selfie craze has on vulnerable young children and teenagers.

Thankfully when I was a teenager, there were no smartphones to capture the awkward and embarrassing process of growing up.

We all had those mortifying awkward teen photos but thankfully they were for the most part confined to mum and dad’s living room.

They were not published online for the world to see.

Ultimately teenagers need to be taught that perfection is over-rated and boring.

And while looking good can be great, it’s no substitute for a decent personality or being able to have an interesting conversation with someone.

While the two are not mutually exclusive, in our obsession with how people look, we are now over-looking who are they really are.

Triona Priestley

A young girl’s dying wish was yesterday granted when her idol, singer Ed Sheeran sang her favourite song as she passed away.

Brave Triona Priestley was serenaded by Ed who personally sang Little Bird to her as she took her last breaths.

The 15-year-old passed away surrounded by her friends and family after battling with cystic fibrosis.

Friends of Triona started an online campaign to contact the singer over the weekend and yesterday Ed called the teenager who is one of his biggest fans.

It is an utterly heartbreaking story but Ed's call to Triona shows the goodness that is out there and made a dream come true for a young girl whose life was tragically cut short by a terrible diseaseRest in peace Triona. You are an inspiration to us all.

Fresh revelations that phone calls between prisoners and their defence lawyers were accidentally taped will have serious implications for these cases.

Once again, it seems like the Justice Minister was the last person to know about this scandal after it emerged he only found out in a letter which was sent to him at yesterday morning’s Cabinet briefing.

The drip-feed of information in relation to the Garda bugging scandal is only making the whole fiasco even more damaging.

In pretty much every democracy on the planet, the right of a prisoner to speak in confidence to a defence lawyer is one of the most basic rights.

Yet it seems in Ireland this right was trampled upon and confidential calls to solicitors were recorded.

This latest revelation will have serious implications for our justice system and could lead to many miscarriage of justice cases being taken by prisoners whose calls were recorded.

Jasmine Waltz has accused Blue singer Lee Ryan of cheating on her with a man.

The brunette beauty took to Twitter on Tuesday to tell the world the alleged reason for her split.

She wrote: “The minute I got home to LA, he cheated on me with a Man.”

She later called him “selfish and disgusting” before deleting the tweets.

The most incredible part of this debacle is that Jasmine is actually surprised at Lee’s alleged behaviour.

While in the Celebrity Big Brother house, the singer admitted to sleeping with guys and to being a lovecheat on previous girlfriends.

As the saying goes, a leopard doesn’t change its spots.

Rhiannon Scully in a hospital bed after copying a NekNomination by downing a bottle of Vodka (Image: North News & Pictures)

The news that a nine-year-old girl is the latest victim of the Neknomination craze is just terrifying.

Rhiannon Scully was rushed to hospital after downing vodka and whisky and was found “all over the place” by her horrified mum Michelle.

Her mother said the schoolgirl had been egged on by two friends to drink the booze after watching videos of similar stunts on social media.

Thankfully an ambulance was called for Rhiannon and she had her stomach pumped but if action hadn’t been taken, the outcome could have been far more tragic.

When the lives of innocent children are being put at risk, hopefully this story will mark the end of the Neknomination craze once and for all.